An heirloom book. One of four in the family library which came from another family member’s library when I was a tiny child.
In the very front, in faint pencil, is what may have been the price. Or it could have been a notation for something else made by this great-uncle I remember stories about. Does 36 mean the book cost $3.60? Or did it cost the number below? $1.10.
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
As hinted above, this book was always in the house. Casual reference would be made by one parent or the other over the years. So when I was a teen, I decided to read it for myself.
It is not a light story. Our volume runs to 1200 pages of close print. Much of it I read at night — when I should have been sleeping. Instead I was buried in the world of pursuit withing the Paris sewers. (Other places too. But it’s the sewers that immediately come to mind.)
It is also a classic story. Movies have been made. The musical version has won acclaim. But my mind keeps going back to little scenes – stealing from the priest who saves him. The entry into the convent. The Paris sewers — it always comes back to that.
To the barricades!
Quick. Hide in the sewer.
Early teen reading far into the night
t was in the attic on a pile of blankets on the floor..
The light was one small bulb in the ceiling.
My strongest memory of books
was at age 13 reading HAWAII and PEYTON PLACE,
not meant for that age I knew.